1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine for attaching fasteners such as buttons to a garment, and more particularly to an apparatus for orienting and placing buttons one at a time for attachment to a garment.
2. Prior Art
Machines for attaching buttons to a garment are known in which one button and its mating fastener part at a time are delivered from their respective chutes to a coacting punch and die and are then clinched or coupled together by the punch and die with a garment placed therebetween. If the button bears on its obverse side a design, mark or symbol indicative of a specified angular position in which the button is to be mounted on a garment, the button must be oriented in such direction.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication (Kokai) 52-60740 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,666) discloses a button orienting apparatus which includes a pusher mechanism for pushing a button to turn or roll the same by a pushing slide in the guide channel until a tab on the reverse side of the button is caught by a pair of claws on a locking lever mounted on the pushing slide. The problem with the prior apparatus is that since the button is pushed on its shank by a bifurcated end of the pushing slide which end projects beyond the clawed end of the locking lever, the button tends to be forwardly tilted as it is moved in the guide channel. With this arrangement, smooth and exact orientation of the button is difficult to achieve. Further, in the prior apparatus, a friction member for causing the button to roll has an inwardly inclined frictional surface engageable with a peripheral edge portion of the button head on its reverse side. Accordingly, the button head is pressed against the bed of the guide channel and also against a side wall opposite to the friction member, thus increasing the resistance to turning of the button. With this increased resistance, smooth rolling of the button in the guide channel is difficult to achieve.